EXPLICIT: Unleashing Fury: Critiquing 'The Rings of Power' and the Struggle for Authentic Adaptation

0:03ShareMitch:Tom's no nonsense right now.

0:06ShareTom:I was going to be nice, but circumstances have forced my hand.

0:25ShareMitch:So Tom.

0:27ShareTom:Why are we here?

0:28ShareMitch:We're going to do a little special episode here, but this is Entertain.

0:30ShareTom:This, a podcast about movies, TV shows and video games. My name is Tom, With me I have Mitch, and together we have my name is Hayden. Well, you can go to entertainthispodcastcom. Let's go to our Facebook group and page. You can also go to Twitter. Slash X at this.

0:47ShareMitch:I don't know, I don't know you go to our X, which is at this. Entertain Our Instagram, which is entertainthis. Our YouTube TikTok entertain this exclamation point. Yeah, so, tom, we're here for you to tell us how much you love the Rings of Power. Fucking hate it.

1:02ShareTom:It is the worst.

1:05ShareMitch:By the way, this is an explicit episode, so if you're listening to this point, you kind of figured it out.

1:07ShareTom:Yeah, it'll be in the title. This is a sauce, not enforceable episode just so you know.

1:13ShareMitch:It was in the title that this is explicit. So if you got this far and heard that, that's on you luckily mitch understands that.

1:19ShareTom:the only way for me to adequately explain to you how much I hate this show, I have to be able to swear. They lost half their viewers and I wish they lost all of them .

1:32ShareMitch:Real quick. Where did the first season leave off? Because I didn't watch it either.

1:36ShareTom:It didn't leave off. None of it makes fucking sense.

1:40ShareMitch:What happened?

1:41ShareTom:So this season starts because at the end of the other one, galadriel the Barbarian finds out that that Halbrand fuckwad was Sauron. The entire time, clues abundant , and Detective Fucknuts over here finally deduces he's actually this person, and I don't know what else Hayden's texting us we don't have time for you. Hayden, we're too busy ranting and raving. So not only do they make the three elven rings with sauron, who in the books has nothing to do with the elven rings, he never touched him, taught him how to do shit, nothing, nada. Well, he did in this, in this one, and he goes and fucks off to mordor. He's standing there because, you know, mordor explodes because the southlands and they have the dopey map change the

2:25ShareTom:southlands to Mordor. He's standing there because Mordor explodes because the Southlands and they have the dopey map change the Southlands becomes Mordor Dumb.

2:29ShareMitch:I do remember that I saw that.

2:31ShareTom:So he goes effing off over there and then this is when they started, with a different actor playing him, and he gets killed by orcs, led by that Adar guy, like one of the first orcs, like they mutiny and like Caesar, julius Caesar, this guy, and he explodes and like you know frost, like you know snowy hell, landscape just erupts out of his body from dying.

2:57ShareMitch:Uh-huh.

2:59ShareTom:But it's like essence , which is just like slugs. It's black ooze, he looks like a symbiote, he looks like venom before he's venom and he's just, you know, octopusing his way around, killing small animals and getting stronger, and then he takes out a person and becomes the halbran guy and it's like okay, and then he does like the fair visage thing. You know. He's anatar the Lord of Gifts, or Annatar. It's like Eregion, it's like has to be introduced in every freaking thing. Galadriel tells nobody that he's Sauron. No one, right, because the whole season is Sauron in Eregion, with Celebrimbor or Granny Brimbor, because it looks like an old woman teaching him the ring stuff and all the Elven Smiths are suddenly girls.

3:49ShareMitch:Of course.

3:49ShareTom:Like it's a sorority.

3:50ShareMitch:Girl power. They forge stuff. They're big muscles.

3:53ShareTom:Yeah, so they're doing all this stuff and he gets in on it. They make the dwarven rings, they send them to the dwarves and only one. They send all seven, but he puts on one. The old King Durin guy puts on his ring and then he starts going wild because the Mordor earthquake with Mount Doom erupted and became Mount Doom, all like the sunlights, the skylights into Khazad-Dum like broke, like they collapsed, so it was dark and all the food's dying because they were growing their own food inside. And then Black Elf Deesa over here, or the Black Dwarf woman Deesa Deez Nuts has to do her rock singing, bullshit Rock singing. Yeah, it's not real, it's wrong .

4:39ShareMitch:It's stupid. It's like singing a rock song.

4:41ShareTom:No, she's just like like at rocks.

4:44ShareMitch:Oh.

4:44ShareTom:Because they can communicate with the mountain. Yeah, okay, cool. So they do that. F it up even more and everything collapses. And then he starts going around and like with the ring, you know, because he's getting the powers of it and he can feel the mountain and know where everything is. Like where Mithril is, where all this stuff like the jewels, the gold. Like where Mithril is, where all this stuff like the jewels, the gold, all of it. It's like treasure map. So he's sitting there with an axe and he's like tapping his way through and so his brain is like oh, skylight, he fixes it all and they're like you got to take off the ring. It's making you crazy. And he's just like what are you out of your damn mind?

5:17ShareTom:This is the stupidest, stupidest show. It is so bad and everything about it sucks. All the actors suck with who they play. They do not do a single character justice.

5:33ShareMitch:Well, I've noticed that a lot of these characters, they look very for lack of a better word dainty. They look like a bunch of twats as opposed to like warriors.

5:46ShareTom:Yeah, you got. I mean, who is going to be scared of that Galadriel? I'd be way more scared of Cate Blanchett. She owned being like an elven lord of high birth and nobility. She shows up talking to you in your mind. You're just looking in her eyes and she's just telepathicallyically telling you some stuff and you're just like yeah, you're in charge, you run stuff, I get you. Or hugo weaving is elrond and I got doogie hauser md over here.

6:15ShareMitch:Yeah, he looks like he's just a stick figure with hair.

6:20ShareTom:He's just a little scrawny guy the only person who looks like they should be that guy is the guy that plays um gil galad or gil galad. And why is that? He looks like it okay he's. The hair looks good, the ears, the crown he looks like he's that guy. The script sucks, so he sucks. His motivations are terrible. Everything about it is just stupid. There's no reason why he's that much of a douchebag it just doesn't make any sense or that much of an idiot. And the editing is god awful. They killed off one of the characters off screen because I think she just left the show. She was like I'm not doing this crap anymore. After they rescued her and saved her life at the end of the last season this time she's just dead.

7:07ShareTom:Like oh, we thought we healed her. She died. Like okay, cool, the battle scenes are trash Because it's like a dozen orcs fighting a dozen elves or a dozen dwarves. It's never. You don't get large scale like you got in Lord of the Rings or even the Hobbit. You don't get any of that. It's nonsense. It is god awful. And then they're like treating with the orcs like you know, trying to make like a bargain or a deal, and it's like no, the elves and the orcs hate each other. They will never talk to each other unless they're talking crap before they're about to kill the other one, like that's it.

7:48ShareMitch:Well, I like how there's like uh, orc girls and babies and all that stuff.

7:52ShareTom:Yeah, the orc infant swaddled up, you know, while like the evil looking orc witch is holding it and it's like what , the what?

8:01ShareMitch:am I.

8:02ShareTom:Like what is this nonsense? And then I mean Galadriel is the worst character in this. She is the stupidest person running around.

8:16ShareMitch:Well, I mean just the way she's written, or the way yeah, the way she's written the script is terrible.

8:22ShareTom:Everything they have her do is just stupid and it doesn't happen in the books. Sauron eventually convinces Cailbrenn to make the nine rings . He was like no. He's like we can't give this power to men. Men are too easily susceptible and corruptible. Does it anyway? Because he's mind-tricking them and drugging his ass and he's tripping balls half the time. He makes the nine. Eventually they figure out Sauron's evil and Celebrimbor gives her the nine rings in a bag and she, you know, puts them in her jacket. Yeah, like you have nine rings of power Plus your own, you have ten rings of power on you. I mean, mean, technically, I would kind of want to put all of them on just to see what the power boost level would be.

9:11ShareTom:But I digress, not, you know, probably not feasible, not, no one's gonna think of it. Does she ever have the nine ever in in the books? No, never, not at all. Sauron made the nine, as far as we know, and with teaching Celebrimbor how to do it okay, so in the book he actually makes the nine rings of men. Yeah, okay don't tell anybody. You have the rings. Who does she fight Sauron? By the way what does she do tell him? She tells the orcs about the ring because one of them is wearing it. They take and she tells the orcs about the ring because one of them is wearing it and he's, like you know, turned into a normal elf, and he takes it off and gives it back to her and he starts, you know, re-orcing, re-orcing up, re-erking up, and

9:58ShareTom:like the two of them are having like a half assed romance and it's like what is this shit? everything about it has been dumpster garbage all about inclusivity it's terrible, it's wrong, it's stupid. It's like none of this happens in the books and the way you describe it it's like you definitely messed it up. It's nowhere close. The acting is trash. Your character decisions are stupid. All their motivations are wrong . None of the set pieces even look that great anymore, because you're so mad about everything else you don't even care how good it looks have you, so you've seen the whole second two , or season two. Yeah, and then the Gandalf fuckery happening in the east with the dark wizard. They meet Tom Bombadil.

10:46ShareTom:Why he's all the way out there, we don't know when he's supposed to be on the other side of the freaking continent hanging out. His act was an idiot and it's just the total rehashing and recalling of great lines from Lord of the Rings and fucking them up.

10:58ShareMitch:And you said there's a guy that's Saruman, but he's not Saruman.

11:01ShareTom:He's Saruman, he is Saruman. Everything about that guy is Saruman.

11:07ShareMitch:But he's not Saruman.

11:08ShareTom:Oh, you know how Gandalf gets a name? Because he doesn't have a name, so he doesn't know what to be called. So they just call him like dude or like guy, or you know, and he's just no, he's like I'll know it, I guess, when I hear it and all the little not hobbits who are hobbits Like thanks, grand Elf, grand Elf. And then he's like Grand Elf, grand Elf, gandalf. It's like come on, just shit writing, because Gandalf isn't even supposed to be in Middle-earth, not in the Saruman . They don't arrive until the thousandth year of the Third Age .

11:52ShareMitch:Which is how far from here.

11:57ShareTom:Yeah, we're like around 2,500 years before that, 2,500 years Of I don't know what the fuck we're doing, but the showrunners they should be beaten up in the street, all these actors who are defending the show. It's like I get it, you got this part, but the show sucks. Like if it were me once, I oh yeah, I'll totally play whoever, I'll play Elrond or whatever and then they introduce this is what you're going to wear. I was like wait, what are we doing? Did you guys read the books Question? Do you know that there are books? It is the worst adaptation of a book ever. It is just god awful. You could make a live action version of the new testament, played exclusively by midgets on skateboards, and it would be

12:59ShareTom:better. It's that good huh, and they're fluffing their ratings. They've lost half the fan base. In the first episode of season two, the first one was viewed, and of course not in its entirety, but it was viewed by one point something million, because remember they were fucking with the numbers. Yeah, this time it's like it's less than a million, it's like a couple hundred thousand people and it just gets worse and worse as the season goes on, cause it sucks. It's terrible. Everything I'm doing in Numenor is totally ass backwards. It's just awful and it's like we spent like you guys have spent a billion dollars on a show you could not get right if you tried. Nothing about this show is, in my eyes, is redeemable none of

13:54ShareTom:it so what?

13:56ShareMitch:what is it like? From what you can tell, what is their ultimate?

13:59ShareTom:goal like where? Where the like what's the direction? It all up and they're already succeeding. If that's their goal, they are winning.

14:06ShareMitch:What direction Like are they headed towards? A certain point of the book that they're supposed to be headed towards?

14:13ShareTom:Well yeah, the last alliance of Men and Elves when they finally confront Sauron. There's major events. You have the formation of the rings, sauron establishing himself openly.

14:22ShareMitch:All this takes place before the Lord of the Rings movie.

14:25ShareTom:Yes, Okay, it takes place 3,000 years before the events of Lord of the Rings.

14:34ShareMitch:So let me ask you, with the events that are happening in Rings of Power, how would that change Lord of the Rings, like what would change in those movies if they went off this Half these people shouldn't be born yet or introduced yet and not be doing any of the things that they are doing.

14:49ShareTom:Right then in that show. I get it. It's such a big timeline, you have to condense some stuff but what they've done makes zero sense to the overall scope of the entire story. Because you do have the fall of Eregion. Sauron captures Celebrimbor and kills him, and his impaled body of arrows is used as a battle standard at the head of his army , and Sauron openly challenges everybody Like I'm the king of Middle-earth of men and elves. And the men of Numenor are like what Saddle up boys? We're going to Middle-earth of men and elves. And the men of Numenor are like what Saddle up boys? We're going to Middle-earth and they show up with an army and Sauron's army runs away. They don't even fight. They're just like okay, yeah, we can't fight.

15:29ShareTom:That many people Like that's way too many dudes and these, like you know, numenoreans, this is like you bloodline okay of guys who were, like you know, seven feet tall and live like 200 something years. You know juggernauts of guys like you know barmere like an army of barmiers?

15:46ShareMitch:yeah, I'm guessing they just don't have those people in this.

15:49ShareTom:No, they look like pansies and they have like the guy, like alendio the tall, and it's like he's barely like a inch taller than anyone. He's sharing a scene with, like in the books, this dude's like seven feet tall, like this guy's freaking than anyone. He's sharing a scene with, like in the books, this dude's like seven feet tall, like this guy's freaking huge. Actually he's almost eight feet tall, he's a massively huge person. I mean, I get it, you can't, I mean, but even then they could, because Lord of the Rings, with the scale, with the Hobbits, to normal size people.

16:16ShareMitch:Well, the ring race. When they're walking around, they're like head and shoulders above everybody else.

16:21ShareTom:That's why you can do it.

16:29ShareMitch:You just didn't want to because you're too lazy and stupid to do it. It's just awful. I hate it.

16:34ShareTom:You can just see the defeated look on your face talking about it. It's like this is a show that could have been great. But Amazon their inclusivity and I'm not trying to like you can't include people into projects. If there's room for it, sure.

16:48ShareMitch:But when you do it just to do it.

16:49ShareTom:But when you do it just to do it, just for the sole sake of it, and you ignore all the source material, you're fucking wrong.

16:59ShareMitch:That's why Henry Cavill's so adamant about you. Know, we're not changing Space Marines, yeah we're not changing . Warhammer.

17:06ShareTom:It's like we're not having a whole division of Lady Astartes running around. It's like why? Because it's not in the source material at all. You are just making shit up to add people because you want everyone. It's like no, you know what the Space Marines are? A whole bunch of dudes who are genetically engineered, jacked up, lunatic badasses whose sole purpose is to go f shit up for the emperor. They are literally the version of what the boys today want to be later, if it all goes to crap . It's like I want two hearts, I want two stomachs, I want extra intestines. I want to be a 10 foot tall juggernaut in power armor, with a chainsaw, sword and a bolt pistol, cutting aliens in half and conquering planets with my friends, with jetpacks and cool

17:56ShareTom:armor and adornments and ornaments yeah, mean I really want to see a first age on screen, but I just don't know how they would ever do it. They showed it in that show in the beginning, where it's like you know why does a ship float? But a rock sinks? It's like because of fucking density. It's a boat, it's supposed to float. That's the why it's a boat, it's supposed to float. That's the problem. That's the why it's a boat. Boats aren't renowned for sinking. It's not a 50 50 if the boat's gonna float or not.

18:32ShareMitch:It's called buoyancy, you dickhead I'm sorry, it's like what is this? Monty python?

18:39ShareTom:it's like wood also floats. It's like, what is this Monty Python? It's like wood also floats. It's like, ooh, very small rocks. It's like, no, no, rocks don't float. Rocks are too dense to float. You have to be lighter than the substance you're in. That's why we can't fly.

18:56ShareMitch:Good point, thank you .

18:59ShareTom:And he's trying to sound like all philosophical. It's like what are you? You a freaking moron. Like, did you get hit in the head? Like what are you? Simple, jack the elf, get the hell out of here with your dopey haircut. And then they show him like, oh , he's dead. It's like, oh, he was killed by siren.

19:12ShareMitch:It's like, no, he was killed by werewolves who work for sauron defending baron now I got a question because supposedly there's going to be another Lord of the Rings movie.

19:26ShareTom:Oh, they're going to jack that shit up too, because, like they're having the cartoon with the Rohirrim and it's like a whole company of female Rohirrim. It's like making shit up again. Let's just make it all up. Fuck it. None of these characters mattered. Nobody likes these people. You know, the next one, aragorn , is going to be a girl. This is just Kathleen Kennedy on steroids. Like, put a check in it, make it gay, make it lame. That's all this shit is. Why can't I have a version of the book I read and liked that is faithful to that book and put on a screen? Why Am I asking a lot?

20:10ShareMitch:Just need to take, like Wonder Woman's island, the Themyscira, and make it all men.

20:16ShareTom:Yeah.

20:16ShareMitch:Manscara Doing all manly things.

20:20ShareTom:Yeah, manly man island It'd be like you, man, man Island.

20:24ShareMitch:It'd be, like you know, like for wonder woman, the , the, the tribe, whatever. They find shipwrecked men to procreate. Could you imagine if somebody made or men find shipwrecked women to procreate? There would be all anarchy.

20:37ShareTom:Oh yeah, social media . This is rape Island. And every dude in their bro is like if I get shipwrecked on an island of amazonian women, just like six foot tall, beautiful women running around in loincloths. It's like with no other competition whatsoever. I'm like time to riz it up, boys.

21:00ShareMitch:Get that pimp walk as you walk up the beach.

21:02ShareTom:Yeah, death by Snoo Snoo. Oh, no man the horror.

21:11ShareMitch:Well, going back to the rings of power. So, galadriel, like you said, galadriel the Barbarian.

21:20ShareTom:She doesn't do any of this shit in the books. She's not the commander of the northern armies. She's not.

21:27ShareMitch:You can't even say anything without Tom just freaking out.

21:31ShareTom:And then she's making out with Elrond.

21:33ShareMitch:Isn't that her dad?

21:34ShareTom:It's like her cousin. It's like, you know, sweet Home , alabama, the Middle Earth edition. It's fucking stupid. And she's just like Delwine Elrond, the orc leader, guy Sauron. And at this point in the book she's married to Celeborn, who's a G. He's one of those elves. He's a G Like that dude. He's one of those elves, you know. He's like a fight-of-Balrog kind of elf. But this is the cock-and-pull shit. I got to watch on the show. It's absolutely awful. What do you? I saw Hayden's message. I think I know why you guys like Power Rangers now. It's like does Hayden like Power Rangers? It's morphin' time. But we're not here to talk about Power Rangers. It's just a horrible show. It's bad writing, it's bad pacing, it's bad storytelling.

22:35ShareTom:It's like you had everything laid out. You had all the appendices, all the books, all of it was there, and you had Tolkien experts and lore guys. You fired because they were like you can't do this, this goes against all of this, and they were like it's not inclusive, get out of here. So it's just, it's terrible and I hope this show plum. I hope it gets canceled. I really do. I really hope that they don't ever get to make another episode and just continue to ruin it. And this is a fandom I thought was safe for so long. They took Star Wars from us with their bullshit. They've taken Lord of the Rings . They took Halo.

23:25ShareMitch:They're trying to take Marvel.

23:26ShareTom:They're taking Marvel . I mean, Star Wars is just bombing right now. They're going after Marvel.

23:33ShareMitch:They're going after She-Hulk over there twerking on screen.

23:35ShareTom:Yeah, they're trying to go after Warhammer, which is basically the most testosterone-fueled boys game ever. It's like you know, it's Adeptus Astartes just effing shit up across the galaxy for the Emperor. The Emperor protects.

23:53ShareMitch:Well, if you like our more explicit content, Rage episodes. Let us know at uh entertain this podcast dot com or on our twitter, which is entertain our at this entertain or instagram entertain, dot this if you. If you like these kind of things, let us know. We'll do more of them. But you know, tom just needed to vent so I was like, well, oh, even the the black elf guy.

24:14ShareTom:I can't remember his name. I don't know. Season before, it's not a season Episode before the last episode Big battle scene. And I say big battle scene 15 on 12. It was like watching an NFL game and you just zoomed in the camera so it just looked like it was a lot happening, like at the line of scrimmage. Nothing else is really going on and people just running by each other. Nobody's swinging, nothing. He's getting jacked up and stabbed, like in the side, like we're talking. Like you got lung damage, liver , pancreas, you know, diaphragm. Next episode totally fine, waltzing around like nothing happened and you're like he's an elf, he heals right. What, what? Elrond led the army into Eregion to fight them, with the

24:58ShareTom:king of the elves not doing that , hanging out to the side. And this is another example of shit editing and writing. They're on their horses and Elrond looks and sees Gil-galad and they give the nod and Elrond leads the charge, which he never would have done because he's the herald of gilgalad, gilgalad, the high king of the noldorian elves left in middle earth. He would have been like let's go, and they, you know, gallop gallantly into the fray. They go and then big fights over. There's like eight versus three . At this point it's like a pickup game of basketball and some friends had to leave because there was time for dinner and he's like you know he's like oh, I'm glad you showed up when you did, and it's like he started with you.

25:49ShareTom:You two saw each other. I saw the scene. You two, locked eyes, nodded and did your shit and now the whole battle's over. It's like he just showed up and it's like what? Like are you smoking crack, to quote Vice City VCPR? What are you snorting blocks? It's just nonsense. It's horrid. We could do a better show.

26:15ShareMitch:I'm sure we could.

26:18ShareTom:We don't have the money, but we could a better show. I'm sure we could. We don't have the money, but we could a key factor a very key factor like. There's so much more I could go on about, but it's just giving me a headache because the veins are starting to pop out of my temple well, if you enjoyed that , check us out on our social media.

26:34ShareMitch:Listen to the next episode. I'm Mitch.

26:38ShareTom:I'm fucking Tom, I guess. Listen, listen to the show. Do it. Bye, bye, hayden. Stupid fucking show. I hate it. It's so goddamn nice. I was so happy it was over. I look every day just to see if it got cancelled, because that's what it deserves. That's bullshit.